The nation’s machinery exports in the first two months of the year grew 20.6 percent year-on-year to US$5.298 billion, driven mainly by strong growth in semiconductor machines and electronic devices, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry said yesterday.
Machinery exports in the first two months reached NT$167.133 billion (US$5.25 billion), 15.9 percent higher than a year earlier, the association said in a report.
It released the data for the first two months to avoid distortions from the week-long Lunar New Year holiday — which was in February this year, but was mostly in January last year — when many businesses and factories were closed.
Photo: Wu Chun-feng, Taipei Times
“Machinery exports grew more than 20 percent in the first two months, indicating a recovery and stable growth in the overall machinery industry,” the association said.
However, as the war in the Middle East has disrupted shipping traffic in the region and triggered hikes in energy costs, “the scale and duration of the war will affect the development of the global economy, creating an unknown future ahead,” it added.
The latest data showed that electronic equipment, inspection and testing equipment, and power transmission equipment were the top three export products in the first two months, accounting for 18.23 percent, 15.59 percent and 5.96 percent respectively.
Exports of electronic equipment rose 32.4 percent annually to US$966 million, inspection and testing equipment sales increased 9.5 percent to US$826 million and power transmission equipment shipments advanced 17.2 percent to US$316 million during the period, the data showed.
Over the same period, shipments of machine tools also increased 5.2 percent to US$287 million. However, the figure was lower than that of other product categories, indicating that the machine tool industry still suffered from insufficient market demand and a relatively strong New Taiwan dollar exchange rate compared with other major Asian currencies, the association said.
Even though the NT dollar has in the past few years depreciated against the US dollar, the local currency’s exchange rates are not in local manufacturers’ favor, affecting their ability to secure orders, it said.
Based on the association’s statistics, from 2021 to Monday, the NT dollar had dropped 11.5 percent against the US dollar, but that was significantly less than the yen’s 53 percent fall and the won’s 34.9 percent decline.
The US, China and Japan remained the three largest buyers of Taiwanese machinery products in the first two months at US$1.453 billion, US$991 million and US$415 million respectively, the association said.
In terms of market share, the US accounted for 24.7 percent of the nation’s total exports, followed by China at 18.7 percent and Japan at 7.8 percent, it said.
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